Northland Māori leader Pita Tipene calls on Prime Minister to ‘sack’ Act from coalition

Pita Tipene says the Prime Minister needs to 'pull the coalition agreement apart and kick Act out'. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Prominent Māori leader Pita Tipene is calling on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to end his party’s coalition with Act in the wake of a chaotic Kaipara District Council Māori ward meeting.

“The Prime Minister is a good man. He needs to do the right thing,” Tipene (Ngāti Hine) said.

“He should pull the coalition agreement apart and kick Act out.”

Tipene’s call comes after what he said was a fiery, and at times a barely under control, Kaipara District Council meeting on August 7.

The council voted to abolish its Māori ward, the first in the country to do so under new legislation.

Tipene said the meeting appeared unsafe at times.

“People didn’t keep their cool, including the mayor. Mayhem eventually erupted,” Tipene said.

Councillor Pera Paniora addresses protestors at Kaipara District Council’s August 7 extraordinary meeting. Photo / Michael Craig

Tipene said Act had pushed for the legislation that enabled the council to get rid of its Māori ward.

And that new law was on top of the Act Party’s Treaty Principles Bill, which the Waitangi Tribunal last Friday came out strongly against in an interim report.

In response, Act Party leader David Seymour said not even the Prime Minister has the ability to ‘sack’ elected representatives.

“The only people with that ability are the voters, and that’s the way it should be,” said Seymour, adding that Tipene was welcome to his opinion.

“But what he needs to realise is that in our democratic society he has the same one five millionth of a say as every other New Zealander.”

Act leader David Seymour Photo / NZME

Seymour said the right to protest was important but intimidation of one side by the other “because you don’t accept someone’s beliefs is unacceptable”.

This had happened when a New Plymouth councillor’s car had been shot at. As a result, the councillor felt unsafe to vote on Māori wards, Seymour said.

Act had campaigned on equal rights and would continue to do so in Parliament, he said.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon Photo / NZME

Luxon’s office did not respond specifically on Tipene’s comments, but made a general comment to Local Democracy Reporting.

“The coalition Government will improve outcomes for Māori and non-Māori by reducing the cost of living, restoring law and order, and providing better public services like health and education,” a spokesman for the Prime Minister said.

Tipene, who is also the Waitangi National Trust chairman, said government legislative change, including the Treaty Principles Bill, would likely lead to increasing social disorder.

The Government needed to ensure its policies did not put people’s safety at risk – as had happened at the Kaipara council meeting, he said.

Police were present, the mayor and Māori ward councillor were yelling at each other, hundreds of protesters outside the building at times drowned out debate.

Pita Tipene speaks at this year’s Waitangi Day commemorations, with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Act leader David Seymour listening. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua lodged a judicial review application just ahead of the council meeting.

Councillor Ron Manderson, who voted to remove Te Moananui o Kaipara Māori Ward, collapsed at his car after the meeting and required ambulance assistance.

What happens next with Northland’s Māori wards decisions?

Māori around Te Tai Tokerau were now watching the region’s three other councils in the wake of the council meeting, Tipene said.

These councils are making their formal Māori ward decisions in the next three weeks, which will affect about 100,000 Northlanders in October 2025′s local government elections.

Northland Regional Council is next to decide on its Māori constituency, in what is expected to be a vote for its continuation on August 27.

Whangārei District Council will follow two days later in what is expected to be a close vote but likely in favour of keeping its Māori ward. Collective Ngā Hapū o Whangārei Terenga Parāoa is calling on Māori to “fill the whare” to watch the Whangārei decision.

Meanwhile, Far North District Council is expected to formally vote in favour of keeping this ward, ahead of the September 6 government deadline. It did not provide a meeting date to Local Democracy Reporting Northland by publication time.

■ LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.